Kodak has reached an agreement for the sale of their digital patent portfolio. Under the agreement, the company will receive $525 million for the imaging patents from Intellectual Ventures, a major holder of US patents, and a group of 12 licensees.
A court motion filed by Kodak today reveals that the 12 intellectual property licensees set to pay a portion of the $525 million, include some of the well-publicized players: Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are among the list of companies involved in the agreement, and Kodak officials say the sale is a key step in their bid to emerge from bankruptcy in the first half of 2013.
“What’s important is what these proceeds enable us to do, and that’s re-pay a substantial portion of our initial loan, we satisfies a condition for our new financing, and also will allow us to continue to invest in and grow our commercial imaging business.” Kodak spokesperson Krista Gleason says.
Gleason says despite earlier expectations that the patents would fetch as much as $2 billion at auction, the company is very happy with the outcome of the sale.
The sale comes after other recent accomplishments, including securing an additional $830 million in loans from investors.
The sale of the patents is a key objective in Kodak's restructuring plan and emergence from bankruptcy.
The full list of buyers includes:
- Intellectual Ventures
- Apple, Inc.
- Research In Motion Limited
- Google Inc.
- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Adobe Systems Incorporated
- HTC Corporation
- Facebook, Inc.
- Fujifilm Corporation
- Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc.
- Shutterfly, Inc.
- Microsoft Corporation
The sale is subject to the final approval of the U.S bankruptcy court in Manhattan.
